Pursuits
U.K. Retail-Sales Slump Hints at Cracks in Brexit Boom
- Sales drop 1.9% from November, far more than forecast
- Accelerating inflation may damp consumer spending this year
A crowd of pedestrians and shoppers walk on Oxford Street, in London, U.K., on Friday, Nov. 25, 2016
Photographer: Luke MacGregorThis article is for subscribers only.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond told a Davos gathering on Friday that an inflation pickup will put a damper on consumers this year. The first signs may already be appearing.
Less than an hour before Hammond spoke, data showed retail sales fell at the fastest pace in almost five years in December, recording a 1.9 percent drop that far exceeded even the most pessimistic forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.